In many ways social reporting embodies the type of mindset we need for learning in the twenty-first century. Social media tools are mostly free, mostly in beta, and are constantly being developed. They are unpredictable and the learning for them is emergent and iterative. You need an attitude to work with these tools which requires experimenting, failing and persisting, playfulness, and a community or network to call on when things go wrong. This often goes against the grain of organizational culture and the way people are traditionally trained.
Social reporting is also about the creation of multimodal(1) reifications which in turn leads to different types of conversations and participation. Adapting some of Wenger’s language(2), a social reporter is aiming to create social (media) learning spaces where people can really engage their experience of practice.
The craft of social reporting combines both social artistry and a curiosity about social media and how to make things work. Almost by definition it is a boundary encounter, challenging those boundaries between private and public, boundaries between who does and does not have access to information, boundaries between vertical and horizontal structures, the boundary between what’s here and there, the boundary between access or not to internet.
Social reporting goes beyond a fad of using social media tools and reaches into learning, meaning-making and identity. It also highlights issues related to multiple membership across community boundaries. I would like to see the design of social reporting into workshops and events as part of the process of creating a language that bridges between social media tools and issues of learning and identity. It is a different process than that of using social media tools just to create a record or a shared memory of the event. It is about weaving in different ways of having conversations and of negotiating meaning. That is an art we are in the early stages of developing.
(1) Multimodal - use of different forms of representation for making meaning
(2) See, for example: “Four essays on innovation and learning in social learning systems” April, 2009
Closing thoughts
In many ways social reporting embodies the type of mindset we need for learning in the twenty-first century. Social media tools are mostly free, mostly in beta, and are constantly being developed. They are unpredictable and the learning for them is emergent and iterative. You need an attitude to work with these tools which requires experimenting, failing and persisting, playfulness, and a community or network to call on when things go wrong. This often goes against the grain of organizational culture and the way people are traditionally trained.
Social reporting is also about the creation of multimodal(1) reifications which in turn leads to different types of conversations and participation. Adapting some of Wenger’s language(2), a social reporter is aiming to create social (media) learning spaces where people can really engage their experience of practice.
The craft of social reporting combines both social artistry and a curiosity about social media and how to make things work. Almost by definition it is a boundary encounter, challenging those boundaries between private and public, boundaries between who does and does not have access to information, boundaries between vertical and horizontal structures, the boundary between what’s here and there, the boundary between access or not to internet.
Social reporting goes beyond a fad of using social media tools and reaches into learning, meaning-making and identity. It also highlights issues related to multiple membership across community boundaries. I would like to see the design of social reporting into workshops and events as part of the process of creating a language that bridges between social media tools and issues of learning and identity. It is a different process than that of using social media tools just to create a record or a shared memory of the event. It is about weaving in different ways of having conversations and of negotiating meaning. That is an art we are in the early stages of developing.
(1) Multimodal - use of different forms of representation for making meaning
(2) See, for example: “Four essays on innovation and learning in social learning systems” April, 2009
Also see:
About the social reporting document
About social reporting
Landscapes of Practices workshop
Workshop tool preparation
What happened?
Reflections and lessons